‘Care home for girls greets all without discrimination’ – ‘Parents of some inmates non-cooperative’

28/12/2015

The team which visited the care home.

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 27: The Social Care Home for Girls will accept anyone without any discrimination, said Adhra Al-Refai, a lawyer who was a part of a civil activist team that visited the care home Sunday morning.

The visit came as an act to learn more about what happens behind the walls of the home as well as a response to recommendations raised by the Kuwait Human Rights Society on the subject of domestic violence.

First impressions were that the building did not seem like it was an incarceration facility for juvenile females, but rather a social center with its own social practices and activities, with psychiatrists, educational and social experts looking over the girls and providing them with the sense of security and necessary care needed.

Throughout the visitation, members of the visiting team raised numerous notes to the management of the care home, most prominent would about their volunteering policies, as the home does not accept any volunteers, which is socially and mentally beneficial for both the inmates and the individuals willing to volunteer.

On the other hand, Dr Shareefa Al-Khamees, stated that the team went through the whole facility, its functions and its interior design, but the visitation did not come without an emotional cost, for the team learned that the most difficult matter that employees and experts at the home have to address is that parents and families of some of the inmates are non-cooperative in any shape or form, whether its visitation or topics about their detained family member, it seems like they do not care.

The care home is part of the Social Care sector at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, which is dedicated to provide adequate care to juvenile inmates and raise their awareness while rehabilitating them to be able to rely on themselves and be a functional and productive member of the society once they are released.

A number of recommendations were raised by the team and will be relayed to the Minister of Social Affairs and Labour Hind Al-Sabeeh, which mainly revolves around making the care home more effective than its current state and address a number of minor problems. The team also invited the media to provide exposure to the home in order to raise the awareness of the public on what this facility stands for.